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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22604086">we are searchlights</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/choomchoom/pseuds/choomchoom'>choomchoom</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Femslash February 2020 [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Wolf 359 (Radio)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, Kissing, zero gravity kissing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 15:53:37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,263</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22604086</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/choomchoom/pseuds/choomchoom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>For Femslash February Day 7: Dark </p>
<p>Minkowski closed her eyes, and her expression relaxed a fraction immediately. Isabel had a few seconds to panic about the fact that Minkowski was trusting her with this and how badly she could fuck it up when Minkowski reached for Isabel, and immediately, all Isabel could think about was that.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Isabel Lovelace/Renée Minkowski</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Femslash February 2020 [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1620400</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>25</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>we are searchlights</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>cw: a couple tiny mentions of anxiety/fear of the dark but it doesn't come off very serious.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Isabel was working with Minkowski in one of the accessory engine rooms, reinforcing weakened coolant lines, when the lights went out.</p>
<p>“Lovelace? Did you do something?” Minkowski’s voice had its usual sharpness, like she expected this to be Isabel’s fault somehow, but there was an also-familiar note of panic there that made Lovelace disinclined to begrudge her for it.</p>
<p>“Wasn’t me,” Isabel said. Weirdly, she could still see a bit, even though there were no lights in the room aside from the fluorescent ones that had shut off completely.</p>
<p>“Hera?”</p>
<p>There was no immediate answer, but when she strained her ears Isabel could hear something faraway and high-pitched that reminded her of Hera’s voice. She floated towards the door and the sound got a bit more legible.</p>
<p>“It looks like some of the other repairs tripped the power grid for that room into a hard shutdown. It’ll reset at the top of the hour, in about twenty minutes. Life support is running on backup systems, but since this isn’t a crew space the lights aren’t rigged to the backup generator,” Hera said, her voice faint from a speaker in the hallway.</p>
<p>“Did you get any of that, Minkowski?” Isabel asked.</p>
<p>“Any of what?” The thread of panic in Minkowski’s voice twisted something in Isabel’s chest.</p>
<p>“Hera says that the power for this room shut off. It’ll be back in about twenty minutes.”</p>
<p>“God <em>damn </em>it.”</p>
<p>Isabel could see Minkowski practically curled against the wall, clinging to the pipe she’d been soldering when the power had cut out. She kicked off the locked door and floated toward her. “Are you okay?”</p>
<p>“Don’t patronize me.”</p>
<p>“How is that patronizing? I’m asking you if you’re okay because you <em>don’t</em> sound okay. Even relative to the usual Hephaestus not-okay standard.”</p>
<p>Minkowski laughed at that and Isabel was both elated (like she was every time she startled a laugh out of the commander) and concerned (because it wasn’t supposed to be that easy).</p>
<p>“What is it? The power outage?”</p>
<p>“It’s – don’t laugh – it’s the dark. I don’t like not being able to see what’s in front of me.”</p>
<p>Isabel was pushing herself forward again toward Minkowski before she really consciously thought about it. She grabbed a piece of machinery to stop herself a few feet from Minkowski. <em>It’s just me</em>, she was about to say, but Minkowski startled when Isabel stopped herself. It was all she could do not to flee as far as she could get across the room.</p>
<p>Minkowski didn’t try to move away, though, so Isabel asked, “Can you not see me?”</p>
<p>“It’s <em>pitch fucking dark </em>in here, Lovelace. No, I can’t.”</p>
<p>“Weird.”</p>
<p>“Why, can you see me?”</p>
<p>“Little bit.” If that was the only problem… “Is it okay if I touch you?”</p>
<p>An agonizingly long pause, then, “Yeah.”</p>
<p>“Okay.” Isabel inched herself forward until she could put a hand on Minkowski’s arm. She wrapped her ankle around a piece of sticking-out coolant tube to keep herself anchored and put her other hand on Minkowski’s opposite shoulder, gently turning Minkowski towards her.</p>
<p>Minkowski not only didn’t try to resist, which exceeded Isabel’s expectations, she even leaned in to the touch, which fulfilled Isabel’s buried hopes. “What if you closed your eyes?” she asked as Minkowski looked at her in barely repressed unseeing panic. “No power outage, just you and me.”</p>
<p>Minkowski closed her eyes, and her expression relaxed a fraction immediately. Isabel had a few seconds to panic about the fact that Minkowski was <em>trusting </em>her with this and how badly she could fuck it up when Minkowski reached for Isabel, and immediately, all Isabel could think about was that.</p>
<p>She fumbled around before finally finding Isabel’s arm, and her other hand came up to cup the side of Isabel’s neck. Isabel could hardly breathe, terrified to break this moment.</p>
<p>But something inspired her to loosen her grip on Minkowski’s arm and slide her hand slowly up to Minkowski’s shoulder. Minkowski’s inhale was sharp and audible. Isabel traved her way down the side of Minkowski’s chest so that she could loop her arm gently but securely around her waist.</p>
<p>Then…she stopped. Eiffel had let slip that Minkowski was married, back in the day, quite possibly after seeing one of Isabel’s too many lingering looks, and Isabel didn’t want to presume –</p>
<p>Minkowski didn’t stop. Minkowski moved her own hand from Isabel’s arm and traced a path down her back. Isabel couldn’t suppress her shiver. At some point their hips had moved quite a bit closer together than Isabel had planned on. Then Minkowski twisted a bit of the back of Isabel’s shirt in her hand, pushing their bodies even closer.</p>
<p>Isabel closed her own eyes so that she didn’t have to see how Minkowski reacted as she said, “Is this still about you being afraid of the dark?”</p>
<p>Minkowski was so, so warm against her.</p>
<p>“No,” Minkowski said, her voice husky just for the moment before she coughed and said, “Do you want me to stop?”</p>
<p>“No. Definitely no,” Isabel said, and with all the places they were touching each other she didn’t have to open her eyes – she could feel Minkowski’s hand tighten on her clavicle, Minkowski’s nose brush against her cheek.</p>
<p>When their lips met, she couldn’t help but lift her hand from Minkowski’s shoulder to the back of her head, curling her fingers into hair that was as thick and soft as she’d always imagined. Minkowski curled into her, locking a leg around one of Isabel’s and pressing their hips flush together.</p>
<p>She was Isabel’s entire world, for a moment. And then the lights came on. </p>
<p>Minkowski broke away from the kiss and Isabel suppressed a groan before blinking her eyes open.</p>
<p>Minkowski hadn’t let go of Isabel, though, and it wasn’t like Isabel had any interest in letting go of her. “You have a husband,” Isabel said, though, because in the light, seeing Minkowski’s soft expression and limbs intertwined with Isabel’s, she finally realized what a massive mistake she might have been about to make.</p>
<p>“Dom and I…talked, before I left. We’re both free to do what we like, as long as everyone involved understands that Dom and I are each other’s primary partner. I hadn’t thought it would be relevant on my end because I was supposed to be in command, and I didn’t mind it on his. Is that arrangement okay with you?”</p>
<p>Okay? It was <em>fantastic</em>. If Isabel had been granted a wish, she wouldn’t even have bothered to wish for Minkowski as her lover without the pressure of thinking about the future. And here it was, dumped right in Isabel’s lap. “Yeah. That sounds very okay.”</p>
<p>“I don’t –” Minkowski looked away, and Isabel’s heart was suddenly pounding in her throat. “I don’t know if that still matters – I’m not anyone’s commander according to Kepler, but Eiffel still calls me –”</p>
<p>“No. You don’t get to pretend you’re still in command of this station just to – what? Punish yourself? No. And if it helps, I’ve never actually considered you to be my commanding officer.”</p>
<p>Minkowski laughed, which was a good sign. She laughed directly into Isabel’s shoulder, which was an <em>excellent </em>sign. “Is it bad if that does help?”</p>
<p>“No, it’s just…it’s very you.”</p>
<p>“And that’s a good thing?”</p>
<p>“Yes,” Isabel said, and to prevent further argument, she kissed her.</p>
<p>Minkowski broke away too soon, again, but like before, she kept her arms and legs right where they were on Isabel. “Hera, please turn off all sensors in this room,” she said.</p>
<p>“<em>Gladly</em>.”</p>
<p>“And… also the lights.”</p>
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